One of the first women to graduate from Oxford University, Dorothy Sayers pursued her goals whether or not what she wanted to do was ordinarily understood to be “feminine.” Sayers did not devote a great deal of time to talking or writing about feminism, but she did explicitly address the issue of women's role in society in the two classic essays collected here.

Central to Sayers's reflections is the conviction that both men and women are first of all human beings and must be regarded as essentially much more alike than different. We are to be true not so much to our sex as to our humanity. The proper role of both men and women, in her view, is to find the work for which they are suited and to do it.

Though written several decades ago, these essays still offer in Sayers's piquant style a sensible and conciliatory approach to ongoing gender issues.

ENDORSEMENTS

“Offers pointed and witty arguments for treating women as individuals, not as a homogeneous class.” — Christianity Today

DOROTHY L. SAYERS was a lay theologian and Christian apologist who met from time to time with the “Inklings,” the group of Oxford intellectuals that included C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and J.R.R. Tolkein. Her numerous writings include detective stories, studies of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, radio plays, and translations of Dante.